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Waltz (episode)
Sisko and an unstable Dukat are stranded after a Cardassian attack. Summary Teaser :Captain's Log: Stardate 51408.6. I've been aboard the Honshu for two days now and I still haven't spoken to him, although the doctors have assured me that he's made a full recovery. Maybe that's what I'm afraid of. Maybe I prefer to think of him as a crazy man... a broken man. He'd be less dangerous that way. As terrible as it sounds, there's a part of me that wishes he were dead. But that's a thought unworthy of a Starfleet officer. He lost an empire, he lost his daughter, and he nearly lost his mind. Whatever his crimes... isn't that enough punishment for one lifetime? The episode opens with Captain Sisko aboard the [[USS Honshu|USS Honshu]]. He walks into the ship's brig. Gul Dukat is there. He is on his way to an appearance before a special Federation Grand Jury on war crimes charges. Dukat asks Sisko if he thinks he is guilty. Sisko tries to dodge the question but Dukat calls him on it. Sisko offers Dukat his sympathies over the death of Tora Ziyal. Dukat talks about how her death led to his "momentary instability," but adds that he has recovered. He thanks Sisko for caring for his daughter. Their conversation is interrupted when the ship is attacked. Major Kira walks out of Captain Sisko's office and informs the rest of the senior staff that the 'Honshu' was destoyed that morning by a wing of Cardassian destroyers. She tells them that the only ships searching for survivors will be the ''Defiant'' and the ''Constellation''. Additionally, the Defiant will only have 52 hours to search as it must leave to guard a troop convoy near the Badlands. Worf orders an immediate departure, but before he goes, Kira reminds him that there are 30,000 Federation troops on the convoy, and that he has 52 hours to find Captain Sisko and not a second more. Captain Sisko and Gal Dukat have crash-landed on a planet; the actual crash is not shown. Gal Dukat has actually saved Sisko's life and nursed him back to health. However, Sisko's body is badly damaged and Gal Dukat has the upper hand Memorable Quotes "Behold ... Benjamin Sisko: supreme arbiter of right and wrong in the universe." : - Dukat "I'm so glad we had this time together, Benjamin, because we won't be seeing each other for a while. I have unfinished business on Bajor. They thought I was their enemy. They don't know what it is to be my enemy, but they will. From this day forward, Bajor is dead! All of Bajor!! And this time, even their Emissary won't be able to save them!" : - Dukat Background Information * This episode sets the stage for the showdown between Sisko and Dukat in the finale "What You Leave Behind". * Damar and Weyoun appear in this episode only as hallucinations witnessed by Dukat. * Armin Shimerman (Quark) and Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) do not appear in this episode. * This is the eighth episode directed by Rene Auberjonois. * The corridors of the [[USS Honshu|USS Honshu]] are reuses of the the Defiant sets, the brig is a reuse of the same set from Voyager. * Ronald D. Moore commented: *:"Waltz" began life as a story we called "Dukat's Head" around the office. The notion was for Sisko to go visit Dukat in the mental hospital and while Sisko was trying to engage the catatonic Cardassian in conversation. We would push in on Dukat's face and then go inside his head and show us the fantasy life he was living. The story would've gone into the past, dealt with his Bajoran mistress, his rise to power, his treatment of the Bajorans and even the fantasy life he was trying to construct for himself on Terok Nor with Kira as his wife and himself as beloved leader of Cardassia & Bajor. We struggled with the storyline for quite a while, but never found a way to make it compelling. Eventually, we noticed that the scenes we liked the best were the ones in the hospital room between Sisko and Dukat and we decided to toss out everything but that. However, some of the character dynamics we had envisioned for the fantasy sequences eventually were realized in the phantom images of Weyoun, Damar, and Kira as they appeared in Dukat's hallucinations. http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6952/ron78.txt *: The intention was to dig down and reveal something in Dukat, both to the audience and to the character himself. He really did hate the Bajorans and he really does wish he'd killed them all. That's the dirty little secret he's tried not to confront head-on all these years, and now finally, he's said it out loud and accepted it about himself. http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6952/ron79.txt *: I don't see anything incompatible in the idea that Dukat wanted to be loved by those he despised. This seems to me like a complex, yet very believable, dynamic. I think you could find many, many instances where a person both loves and hates another person for very complex reasons. Dukat's egotistical need to be loved doesn't seem to be in conflict with his need to dominate and rule. In fact, one could argue that it was the Bajorans' refusal to love him (in his somewhat twisted view of reality) that prompted him to hate them. http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/6952/ron80.txt Links and References Guest Stars * Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun * Marc Alaimo as Dukat * Casey Biggs as Damar References Badlands; Bajor; Bajorans; Bajoran Resistance; bone regenerator; brig; Cardassia; Cardassians; Cardassian Central Command; Cardassian destroyer; Cardassian orbital dry dock; cast; ''Constellation'', USS; Cox; Dahkur Province; distress beacon; distress call; Dominion; Emissary; Federation troop ship; field rations; ''Honshu'', USS; kanar; Kornaire; McConnell; medkit; Occupation of Bajor; Orion slave girl; pepper; plasma; plasma fields; Prefect; Prophets; ration packs; salt; Shakaar government; soup; Starbase 621; Type-6 shuttlecraft; ''Yeager''-type starship; Ziyal, Tora. Category:DS9 episodes de:Das Gute und das Böse es:Waltz nl:Waltz